Extended Family THWTLAL spinoffsequel
by Stephaniiie
Summary: The spin-off/sequel of 'The Hard Way To Learn A Lesson'. Summary inside because of spoilers. Rated T for language.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer- I do not own any publically recognised characters or items. However, Mason, Mackenzie and any other OCs belong to ME as does the story. Plagiarism is a crime and will be treated as such. You all own me.**

**!WARNING!**

The following A/N and story contain major spoilers to 'The Hard Way To Learn A Lesson'. You can read this without having read that, as it is a completely different story, but THWTLAL may explain a lot.

**Full Summary: **As Bella and Edward adjust to becoming parents, Jane attempts to find her real father through various secret e-mails and letters while simultaneously growing closer to adopted brother, Edward's best friend, Mason. Little does Jane know, Mason is hiding a secret of his own, and this secret has the potential to destroy her trust in him.

And, due to popular request, I am going to try to put in more Alice and Jasper ;)

**IMPORTANT A/N**

So I know the summary sounds awful but it's all I can give you without giving everything away. You will know in like four chapters time what Mason's big secret is, but I promise it's not as angsty as Edward's secret in THWTLAL. It's… hard to explain. You'll see what I mean as this progresses.

Anyway… here is the spin-off I promised you :D It took a while to get out but I've done it. I had this first bit ready a while ago but there was a unanimous vote to wait to post until I've done the majority of my major exams. I will say now that this _may not be completed_. I have a plan but I'm not overly confident. I hate leaving stories so it is unlikely that I will quit but I think it's fair to give you a warning that if this is not very good, or not very popular, then it could be shortened to benefit my other fics.

Now, if you've read THWTLAL then you may notice that this prologue is the epilogue to THWTLAL. You don't have to read it but if you want to refresh your memory then please go ahead :) If you've read it then you can skip the rest of this A/N

Oh, but I do want to say hi before you start. Just because… well, I'm not sure why. But when I write my other stories I'm very aware that it's not the same audience, though I know that a lot of you guys read those as well (which I love you for). And now… I am sat here with a huge smile on my face to be back writing this… you never notice how much you love something until it's gone huh?

So… HI :D

**To those that haven't read THWTLAL: **I don't think that there'll be many people – if any at all – but if you haven't read THWTLAL then here is a brief outline of what happened: Bad boy Edward and straight-A Bella were paired up for a psychology project that involved living together for three weeks. Edward's best friend, Mason Roberts, also did the project. During the project, Edward and Bella fell in love and then entered a music competition. At the music competition, Edward kissed Tanya as he thought that she was Bella. She caught them and was devastated. Due to some major misunderstandings, Edward was then sent to a boarding school in Seattle, where he met a troubled girl called Jane who relied a little too much on alcohol. During his absence, Bella discovered that Edward's friend Mason liked her quite a lot. She also found out that she was pregnant with Edward's baby. Mason realised that Bella belonged with Edward and so arranged a rescue mission in order to bring Edward back to Bella. They got back together and we left them in THWTLAL preparing to be parents to a little boy, who they named after the baby Esme lost a few years before the story was set, Ethan, and Mason and Edward. At the end of THWTLAL we also found out that the Cullens adopted Jane after her previously adopted father was arrested, and that Mason has a bit of a thing for her.

This prologue is the epilogue copied and pasted and very slightly changed. It will be the only chapter in third person.

This story is about Mason and Jane's friendship, and eventual romance, Bella and Edward's adaption to becoming parents, and Jane's secret attempt to find her real father.

I hope you guys like it as much as you liked the… firstquel? :S

Happy reading!

* * *

**Extended Family**

**Prologue**

The man's eyes skimmed over the calendar in front of him, reading the pencil notes scribbled on almost every day. Or, really, it was the singular of the word note because it was the same name over and over again: _Cullen_. Today, the 22nd March, was no different.

"Enter, Cullen," Mr Marshall called in a bored voice. He was used to 'Cullen' being right outside his office. In fact, he didn't even have to wait for the harsh rap of knuckles on the door anymore. And that had nothing to do with the fact that there was a window in the door of the office.

The door opened and an extraordinarily good-looking girl came in with an entertained smile on her pretty face. "Mr Marshall," she greeted as she sat down in the chair opposite her head teacher. She sat back in the chair, the light glinting off of the honey highlights running through her dark blonde hair. Her big blue eyes were teasing, a cheeky glint passing through them as she put her feet up on the desk as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Which, to her, it probably was.

Mr Marshall rolled his eyes. "Feet off the desk, Jane."

"Yes, Sir," Jane replied with a smirk, taking her feet off of the desk.

Mr Marshall sighed and twirled slightly in the swivel chair that was still a novelty, even though he had been in this post now for almost a whole term. "Why are you here this time then, Cullen?"

"For speaking the truth," the girl answered in an innocent voice.

Marshall pinched the bridge of his nose to hide a smile in his palm. "Speaking the truth to whom?"

"That Stanley girl." Her tone turned bitter and cross when she spoke and her perfect face turned into an expression so menacing, even a vampire would have been scared.

"I presume you mean Jessica Stanley?" Mr Marshall sighed, knowing the history that the two girls had. "Look, Jane, I understand why you don't like her but… well, can't you just leave her alone? There's no need to say nasty things."

"I said that I told the truth not that I said nasty things to her." Jane smirked at her head teacher. Then she turned her smirk into a glare. "Besides, she's trying to steal _my _boyfriend!"

"Miss Stanley tries to steal everyone's boyfriends," Mr Marshall reminded her. He swivelled his chair again. "I know you've had a tough time in the past, but you have to put it behind you and stop squandering your talents to make trouble." He looked the girl right in the eye. "I am not going to punish you, Jane."

Jane smiled sweetly. "Thank you."

"But you have to stop taking advantage of my blatant favouritism for you Cullens," Mr Marshall said, leaning back in his chair. "It makes me look bad."

"So setting the fire bell off so that I can miss the exam next period is a bad idea?" she asked in a serious tone.

"Now that," Mr Marshall said in a stern voice that didn't match the smile on his face, "I will punish you for."

Jane laughed and stood up, turning and heading for the door. "Thanks Mr M. Nice doing business with you."

"Whatever, Miss C," he called after her. "Just leave the poor Stanley girl alone!"

Marshall shook his head, chuckling to himself and started to arrange the pencils on his desk in a neat row. This head teacher business was fun. But then there came a knock at the door, slightly nervous and scared. Mr Marshall smiled, knowing who it would be from just the sound of the knock; only one person in the school had been wandering around this week _that_ anxiously.

"Come in," he said.

The door was pushed open and Forks High's head boy came into the room, biting his lip. "Can I talk to you?"

"Of course," Marshall replied. "Shut the door behind you and come and take a seat." He waited until the boy had taken the seat opposite him and then said, "Your sister was in here just a moment ago."

Edward blinked at him. "Alice?"

"No, Jane."

Understanding lit his face. "Oh. What's she done now?"

"She called Jessica Stanley a scheming, slutty little whore." Mr Marshall laughed lightly with another shake of his head. "It was all I could do not to pat her on the back and congratulate her."

Edward rolled his eyes, but was too concerned to manage a laugh. "Yeah, she's a crack-up. When she's with Mason, they are the comedy duo of the century."

"Mmm," the head teacher agreed absently, abruptly very focussed on lining the pencils up again. "What did you want to talk about?"

Edward shuffled nervously in his chair, running a hand through his messy coppery-coloured hair. His glittering green eyes were tired and worried, just like the rest of him.

Mr Marshall sensed that he wasn't ready to say anything yet, so he asked, "How's Bella?"

Edward smiled slightly at the mention of his girlfriend's name. "Freaking out, of course. She hates being so fat- keeps saying that not being able to see her feet doesn't help her already awful balance. Keeps worrying that she doesn't have everything she'll need. Keeps complaining about this maternity leave thing- she's bored." Edward laughed, and then sighed. "What if… what if he doesn't like me?" he whispered after a long pause.

Mr Marshall looked up at one of his favourite students and appraised the worry in his tone, the heavy bags under his eyes, the way he twisted his hand through his hair, and then he smiled. "Edward, of course he's going to like you. We're talking about your son, correct?"

Edward nodded warily.

Mr Marshall abandoned his pencils and leant across his desk to look the boy in the eye. "The love between a parent and child is something that can never be broken or bettered. You and Bella are going to do perfectly, I can tell."

"But how can you tell?" Edward said. "How do you know that we're not going to screw up and drop him or hurt him or… ugh! There's so much we can do wrong!"

"I can tell because I was in the very same position as you are once," the older man admitted with a sigh.

Edward blanched, that being the thing he least expected to hear. "What?"

"When I was in high school, I fell in love with the most beautiful girl. We got together and decided to run away and get married. So as soon as we graduated we got married, even though both of our parents were against it; we never saw any of our parents again." He sighed. "Less than a year later, we had a baby girl; the prettiest little girl in the world. So pretty that Sara, her Mum and my wife, put her up for modelling behind my back. I didn't like it at all and we fought about it. So badly that when I got home from work one day, she had upped and left me; taken our baby and gone.

"It was only recently that I discovered that my little girl knew nothing about this. Her Mum married another man – another teacher, ironically enough – and told my daughter that he was her father." Mr Marshall's eyes were distant- elsewhere. "But it turns out that Sara died in a car accident when our child was five and, since no one knew that this other man wasn't her biological father, he got custody.

"My little girl moved in with him at his posh boarding school and I was none the wiser. But then his boarding school lost money and went from the nicest one in the state to the crappiest of the crap." Then Mr Marshall smiled at Edward, returning to the present. "You know what her name was?"

"What?" The boy was utterly absorbed in the man's story.

Mr Marshall looked at his door and then said, "Jane. Her name was Jane."

Edward was silent for a long while, and then he said, "You mean… Jane – our Jane – is your _daughter_?"

The head teacher's eyes drifted back to the boy's face as he nodded. "But you can't tell anyone. She's happy now and that's all I want. Besides, I know she's in good hands." He shot Edward a meaningful look.

Edward was speechless. "But…"

"Edward," Mr Marshall sighed, "my point is this- no matter what happens in the future, you will always love your son and he will always love you. That is one bond that simply cannot be broken."

"But Jane will never know?" Edward whispered sadly.

Marshall shrugged slightly. "Maybe one day she'll find out. But I don't think there's a better family she could have been 'adopted' into. I've had to live without her for all this time and I'd rather see her happy with your family than not at all."

"But what about all the things you can do with her?" Cullen asked; he hadn't missed the loving tone when the older man spoke of his daughter. And he couldn't help but wonder whether Mr Marshall was aware of how much he was missing out on.

"What, you mean like give her the money she wants for new clothes while she's a teenager? Be there at her graduation ceremony crying with pride? Walk her down the aisle on her wedding day?" He sighed wistfully. "I'd give anything to be able to do all of that."

"What's stopping you?"

Mr Marshall smiled, but it was almost patronising in its sarcasm. "The very same things that you're feeling now. Fear. Anxiety. Worry. Being a parent isn't an occupation you can just quit. It's a full-time, stressful and exhausting duty. But it's a nice duty to have. And maybe one day I can come clean to Jane. But she's not my baby girl any more, Edward. She's a young lady who is perfectly capable of making her own decisions."

Edward opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by his phone ringing. He jumped and grabbed his phone out of his pocket answering it and bringing it straight to his ear. "Bella, are you okay? What's happened?" He listened intently to what she was saying and Mr Marshall watched his concentrated expression with a slight laugh. Edward leapt to his feet then, knocking the chair over as he did so. "I'll come right now. Remember to breathe."

Mr Marshall could hear Bella laugh from where he was sat. "It's okay, Edward," she told him. "I'm having a baby, not dying."

Edward scowled. "Well, I'll be there as soon as I can anyway. See you in a bit." He hung up and looked anxiously at Mr Marshall as he backed toward the exit. "I have to go."

The man nodded understandingly. "Go. And Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"Make the most of Bella laughing. In not so long she'll be threatening to rip you into pieces." He shot the boy a wink and went back to organising his pencils.

Edward, who had his hand on the door handle, let go of the handle and went back to Marshall's side. "Thank you," he said fervently. "For everything."

Mr Marshall nodded. "Anytime."

"And Mr M?"

Marshall grinned and looked up. "Yeah Mr C?"

"Make sure you tell Jane before she graduates? Maybe you'll get a chance to walk her down the aisle after all. I'm going to face my fears right now; maybe you should too."

Mr Marshall thought about that. "You know, maybe I will," he said, but when he looked back at Edward, he found that the boy had already gone. He bit his lip and opened his drawer. He took out the photo frame he had had for almost seventeen long years and looked at the adorable baby girl in the picture, her face all dimples, her blonde hair sticking out by her chin and her green eyes shining with happiness. How times had changed. "One day," Marshall promised the girl in the photo. "But not anytime soon." And then he put the photo back in the drawer and finished lining his pencils up.

For a moment, Mr Marshall wondered what the now-retired Mr Hudson would think of Edward's improvement. And then he grinned. He grinned because he, Stephen Marshall, had been the one to prove that there was not an un-teachable student in the world, including Edward Cullen. After all, one can never over-estimate the power of the human mind… and the psychology behind it…

**~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~**

**So there is the prologue :) Um… keeping this short since the top A/N is huge and I'm posting the next chapter now anyway…**

**Any reviews are appreciated! Thanks :)**

**-Steph**


	2. Chapter 1: Gossip Travels Fast

**Extended Family**

**Chapter 1- Gossip Travels Fast**

**Jane POV**

I ignored the stares that I felt on my back as I ate my chips. I stared out of the window and contemplated the conversation I had just had with Mr Marshall as I waited for Mason, Alice, Jasper and Edward to come and join me. Mason got there first. Unluckily for me.

"What the fuck?" he asked as soon as he took the chair next to me. "Jane! Why are a load of juniors coming up and congratulating me on asking you out?"

I shuffled embarrassedly under his gaze. "Um… because Jessica Stanley was saying these things… you know, it's probably better that I don't tell you what she said. Um… yeah… anyways… she said some things about you so I kind of… lied and said that you would never date her because you were taken. She asked who by and I told her that it was none of her business and called her a scheming slutty little whore. Jessica made her own assumption and I… didn't deny it…" I trailed off and then stood up, wilding fumbling for an excuse to get out of that sticky situation. "Now, if you don't mind I'm going to…"

"Not so fast." Mason didn't even give me a chance to finish my sentence. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down on to the seat I had been sat on. "You told your whole year that we're dating?" His gorgeous greeny-blue eyes were wide with astonishment.

I would be lying if I said that his shock didn't hurt me; because it did. Obviously he was too good for me and obviously we wouldn't be dating, but was it so awful that a bunch of juniors – okay the whole junior year – thought that we were? I sighed, and fiddled with the braid I had plaited into my dark wavy hair that morning. "It was an accident!" I whined. "I didn't know that they were all listening!"

He rolled his eyes. "Jane, you were having a screaming match in the corridor; of course everyone within hearing distance was going to listen."

I pouted. "How do you know that?"

Mason shrugged and stole one of my chips. "Gossip travels fast."

My eyes narrowed. "So if you knew what had happened all along, why did you ask me?"

"I didn't know if it was true. So I had to hear it from you." He stole another chip.

"Leave my food alone," I snapped, my annoyance from his reaction to the gossip seeping through.

Mason chuckled and, instead of eating the chip, he turned it toward me and held it by my mouth.

I parted my lips and let him feed me. The tip of one of his fingers brushed against my bottom lip and my skin tingled, my face flushing slightly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Been taking blushing lessons from Bella, huh?"

"You pick these things up when you live with people," I said coolly, though we both knew that it was bullshit.

Mason watched for a moment as I ate some more chips, and then shook his head when I offered him one. "Can I ask you something?" he said after a moment.

"Go ahead." He could ask me what he wanted; getting a truthful response, however, was a different thing altogether.

"Why did you do that? Shout at Jessica for saying that she wanted to…"

"Don't repeat what she said," I interrupted him. "I've been scarred for life already."

Mason laughed. "Okay. Well, why did you do it?"

I sighed. "Because… you're my friend. And I happen to know that you hate Jessica Stanley so I… put in a good word for you." I didn't meet his eyes, fearful that he would see that my words were all lies. That, yes, he was my friend, but that I wanted him to be so much more. That he would see that I hadn't denied that we were dating because it was nice to pretend, even just for a minute.

Mason slid a finger under my chin, making my skin tingle where he touched it, and tilted my head up so that I was meeting his eyes. "Thank you. You're a really good friend to me Jane and… I want you to know that I think of you as… extended family. All of you Cullens."

I smiled half-heartedly as my heart sunk in my chest. It was the same old thing. The same old 'I love you… like a sister' thing. "Mason, you know that you pretty much _are_ one of the family."

He opened his mouth to respond, but a high soprano-like voice chimed in ahead of him. "Hey love-birds," Alice sang as she sat down opposite us. Jasper took his place next to her, putting her tray down in front of her, always the chivalrous gentleman.

"You heard, huh?" Mason asked, dropping his hand instantly and running it through his dark floppy hair.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Hasn't everyone? After Edward, you're the most-wanted guy in the school… and now everyone thinks that you're taken." She met my eyes and I could see the hidden meaning in their ice blue depths. Alice and Bella were the only people that knew about my unrequited crushing on Mason.

I had admitted it to Alice one night just a few weeks after I had been generously adopted into the Cullen family; and she was incapable of keeping secrets from Bella. I wasn't too happy about that. See, Bella and I didn't get on all that well. Not because I didn't like her – even though I didn't, really – but just because she was fun to tease. So I teased her. Admittedly, quite a lot. She was kinda sensitive, though that could have had something to do with the fact that she was already two months pregnant when I came along. She didn't need to worry about that though. Her knight in shining armour always came to her defence. That was the main reason why I didn't like her.

I wasn't _jealous_ – I liked Mason – but Edward was like the brother I had never had. And when he had turned up at boarding school and bunked in the room next door to me, I had seen how broken he was. It frustrated me that she could hurt him so badly and that he would take her back so easily. Sure, it had been a misunderstanding, and, yes, they were in love but… I still felt that he deserved more than a whiny girl whose affections hadn't strayed when he had left without speaking to her; not that it hadn't been for trying.

Yes, the fact that she had kissed Mason more than once also contributed to the tiny grudge I held against her.

Alice cleared her throat then, pulling me back to the present. "Speaking of Edward… where is he?"

I looked around and realised that he wasn't anywhere to be seen in the canteen. I frowned. "I thought he was with you guys?"

"No," Jasper said, "we had Spanish and he had a free period."

"Maybe he went home for the free and lunch? To see Bella?" Mason suggested.

"Probably," Alice agreed. She speared a piece of tuna pasta with her fork. "You know, the baby turned the other day. That means that it'll be here soon." A huge smile spread across her face. "I'm gonna be an auntie."

"Me too," I said, one side of my mouth lifting. "Kinda."

"Jane, you're as related to this child as I am," Alice said, her quirked brow warning me not to get started on this subject again.

"Just not by blood," I muttered, loud enough only for Mason to hear.

He reached for my hand under the table, and squeezed it reassuringly.

I looked up into his eyes and saw the sympathy in them. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand back before he extracted it and used it to nab another chip from my plate. I laughed.

Sometimes, I forgot how much I really liked Mason Roberts.

I met Alice by her canary yellow Porsche (she had received it as a belated birthday present from Edward, Mason, Bella, Jasper and I the previous July) a few hours later. I didn't fail to notice that Edward's Volvo had disappeared from the space it should have been occupying beside it. Neither did Alice.

"Has Edward gone already?" she asked as soon as she came to my side after saying a long – and rather explicit – goodbye to Jasper.

"I guess so," I replied, chucking my bag over my shoulder and into the back as I climbed into the passenger seat. "Did you have any lessons with him this afternoon?"

"No," she said. "Maybe he stayed home with Bella?"

"Yeah, maybe," I mumbled, reaching for the radio and turning it up so loud that the volume rocked the frame of the car when a good song came on. A lot of people stared as we drove out of the car park, but when I searched for the one person I cared about, I saw him talking to Angela Weber from his class, completely disinterested in the noisy attention-grabbing car that passed him by.

I sighed.

"Edward?" Alice called the moment the door slammed behind her.

I kicked off my shoes, ditched my bag on the floor, and headed for the kitchen to grab a coke out of the fridge while Alice headed up the stairs to find her brother. "Hey Esme," I said to my 'adopted' Mum as I pushed the fridge door shut and took a long gulp from the can of coke I had cracked open.

"Hi sweetie," she said from where she sat at the table, playing nervously with her fingers. "Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah," I replied slowly, hearing the nerves in her tone. "What's going on?"

"Mum!" Alice hollered from upstairs. "Where's Edward? And Bella?" Her voice quietened as she came into the kitchen and grabbed a coke from the fridge as well.

Esme watched her daughter with a soft smile. "You guys shouldn't drink so much coke; it's bad for your teeth." Then she turned serious. "Um… Edward and Bella are… at the hospital."

Alice spluttered into her coke in shock. I patted her on the back with a giggle.

"What?" Alice exclaimed when she had finished choking. "Is she…?"

Esme nodded. "Yes, Alice, she's fine. He just decided to come a little earlier than expected, that's all."

"_That's_ where Edward was," Alice realised.

"Have you spoken to him?" I asked.

"Yes, he called about an hour ago. Everything's fine so far; no complications yet."

"How was he?" That was Alice.

Esme laughed lightly. "He sounded like he was tearing his hair out. He told me some of the things Bella had threatened to do to him and they really weren't very nice." She laughed again, and then cringed at a memory. "I don't blame her though. Childbirth really is the most painful…"

"Mum!" Alice interrupted. "TMI!"

Esme stared at her blankly. "TMI?"

"Too much information," I filled her in with a snigger.

"You kids and your abbreviations."

Alice started bouncing in her chair then; and she had only had two gulps of coke. "This is so exciting! I'm going to be an auntie." Then she frowned slightly. "I'm too young to be an auntie."

"_I'm_ too young to be an auntie!" I pointed out. "I'm only sixteen."

"Nearly seventeen." Alice poked her tongue out at me childishly.

"You girls think you've got it bad? I'm forty-three and I'm gonna be a grandma," Esme chuckled.

"Bella's eighteen and she's gonna be a Mum," Alice countered.

"Edward's seventeen and he's gonna be a Dad," I said. We all were quiet then, thinking of Bella and Edward and the tiny little baby. I wondered what they would call him. They had told us that they had a name in mind but they had kept it completely under wraps. Nobody knew but Edward and Bella. Then, I wondered what it would be like having a baby in the house. Whether he would be annoying, and noisy, and smelly, or whether he would be cute, and content, and entertaining. Even if he was a disappointment, it would be funny watching Edward try to put diapers on him, I supposed. And watching Bella attempt to hold the baby without dropping him.

I was sure she that _wouldn't_ drop him, but that would be something else fun to tease her about.

"Whatever you're thinking of doing," Alice said then, "don't."

"What?" I asked innocently.

"I know that evil little smirk, Jane Kylee Cullen." Alice raised her eyebrows at me, knowing how much I hated my middle name. "And I know that you're thinking of something mean- so don't even go there."

I pouted and was about to start arguing with Alice, when Esme spoke first.

"Speaking of evil tendencies," she said slowly, "I got a call from a certain Mr Marshall this afternoon, regarding you Jane."

I groaned. "He said he wasn't going to punish me for that!"

"He told me that he let it slide, yes," Esme agreed, "but Jane, calling someone a… what was it?"

"Scheming, slutty whore," I muttered.

"Yes, calling someone that cannot be condoned, Jane. Please try and keep those names inside your head."

"She started it." I took another gulp of coke.

"That doesn't matter. You're a Cullen girl now and us Cullens are… more ladylike than that."

The three of us were quiet for a moment, and then we all burst out laughing, remembering the time a few months before when a girl had called Bella a slut upon passing her and Esme had called the girl some _very _unladylike things.

"Mum, you are such a hypocrite!" Alice laughed.

Esme shook her head slightly and patted Alice's head, causing her to whine about Esme ruining her carefully styled, jet black, spiky hair.

"The point still stands, Jane," Esme said then, serious again. "Please don't scream the word whore in the school corridor where everyone can hear. What started this argument anyway?"

"Nothing," I lied at the same time as Alice said, "Mason, of course."

Esme smiled. "Ah."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Jay, it's obvious you like him. He likes you too."

"Yeah, like a sister," I muttered.

"Why don't you date a guy in your year? Then he might get jealous." Alice winked at me.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Can you imagine dating anyone who's not Jasper?"

"That's different…"

"No. It's not." I sighed and stood up, dropping my now-empty can in the bin. "I'm going to my room." I left Esme and Alice in the kitchen and headed for the stairs, picking my discarded bag up on my way past.

Technically, my bedroom was Edward's old room. But since the whole baby thing, Edward had moved to one of the free rooms on the third floor with Bella; the one next door to his 'den'. It had been agreed months ago that moving the love-birds upstairs would be the best thing to do, since that way when the baby came the two of them would be the only ones losing sleep.

I pushed the door shut behind me and sat on my bed, pulling my big scrapbook out from under the mattress. It was a huge book, a proper scrapbook with sturdy pages and binder-style edges. Each page had spaces for captions, and quotes, and photos, and drawings, and anything else you'd ever stick in a scrapbook.

I had had this book for almost three years now. Ever since my Mum had died when I was five, I had believed that Barry Grogan was my father- that was what he had always told me. But then, on my fourteenth birthday, I found this scrapbook in his office when I had raided it for the present he had failed to get me- since he had forgotten that it was my birthday. It was in a massive brown package, with my name on the top, spelt out in clear, cursive letters- Jane Kylee Marshall (my Mum's maiden name). Curiosity overpowered me, and I tore the paper off and opened the book.

There had been a letter paper-clipped to the first page. Now I had stuck it in with glue and surrounded it with a border of blue glitter. I pushed the cover open and read the letter again, even though I had memorised it years ago.

_My darling Jane,_

_I don't know if you remember me, sweetheart, but I'm your father. It took me ages to locate you at this address after your Mum took you away from me when you were only one. I don't want you to hate your mother, not at all, but it would be great if you could persuade her to let you call me; I left you my number at the bottom of this letter._

_I just want to send you this so that you know that I'm here, and I love you no matter what. I'll always be here for you and if you ever want to find me, then just ask your mother and remind her that both you and I have rights; she knows where to find me. Or call the number at the bottom of this letter._

_I hope that you'll use this scrapbook to document your life- so that whenever we meet again, you can show me the things that you've done, the friends that you've made and the brilliant things I'm sure that you'll achieve._

_I love you._

_Dad_

The phone number was directly after the brief message. I had called it instantly, but all I ever got was a woman telling me that the number was no longer in use. So I had checked the date, and found out that the package had been sent when I was six- just a year after my Mum had died.

That night, I had confronted Barry, but he denied everything for ages, repeating over and over that he _was_ my father. When I said that I knew that he was lying, he had hit me and told me never to bring it up again. Needless to say, I hadn't.

I had treasured the scrapbook ever since I had found it, though, and read the letter everyday; it was a comfort to know that there was _someone_ out there that had loved me once, even if I couldn't contact them. I wondered if he still loved me, and if he thought about me as often as I thought about him.

But, even though I had treasured it for so long, I hadn't documented anything in there until I had moved in with the Cullens. Before that, I didn't want to remember anything that had happened to me.

As soon as I moved to Forks, though, I had bought a camera that prints the photos you take, and got to work with my scrapbook.

Now, as I turned the pages, I could see how happy I was in my new life. There were tons of photos of Edward and Bella, Alice and Jasper, Carlisle and Esme, and even a few of Emmett and Rosalie; my new family. But the person whose photo occurred the most in my secret scrapbook had the most gorgeous green-blue eyes and almost-black hair cut in choppy, uneven layers. His bone structure was sharp and defined, and his body was toned, but not overly muscular. The thing I liked best about him, though, was his amazing smile. I practically lived to make him smile because it was so gorgeous. When the corners of his mouth turned up, his whole face smiled with him; his eyes creasing at the corners and dimples appearing in his cheeks. And every time I looked at him, my heart jumped into my throat and his name would get stuck in my head, in the same way that a catchy song does.

I sighed, and reached for the small pile of photos I had in the pocket for them at the back of the scrapbook and started to stick them down, writing careful captions underneath the photos. The next one I touched was of him and me together, gazing into each others eyes. I really liked that photo because it looked like he genuinely cared about me.

I dabbed some glue on the back, and stuck it carefully into place, grabbing the gold gel pen out of my pencil case and writing a caption on the black card:

"_I think of you as… extended family"- Mason Roberts_

I swallowed hard, trying to be rid of the lump in my throat as I read his words over and over again. Perhaps the constant reminder would stop me from pining after him for much longer…

Oh, who was I kidding? I was slowly but surely falling in love with my best friend; who saw me as a little sister. How stupid, and clichéd, and utterly heartbreaking.

**~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~**

**So there you have it. And hopefully you already like this Jane. I know I do :) But, yes, she's going to remain very OOC. She's never going to turn evil :L**

**If you want to see what this Jane looks like, then go to my website and the pic is in the new album for this story, along with one of Mason :) If I had known that I would do a spin-off about her, then I probably wouldn't have given her Jane's character because she looks and acts completely differently but that's what I did and I can't see her with another name now :L And, no, she doesn't like Bella… but that's a part of the story ;) Besides, I can't really see Jane liking Bella anyway- can you? Lol**

**I don't **_**intend**_** on doing any EPOVs or BPOVs in this story but if there's something I feel you should know from either of their POVs it will be posted as another chapter in the outtakes.**

**And, before you ask, Jane thinks that Marshall is her mother's maiden name, not her father's surname. Marshall is a common surname so she doesn't make that connection… at least, not yet… ;)**

**Regarding updates, I don't know how frequently I will post, nor when the next update will be. I have far too many stories on the go at the moment and, admittedly, I'm being pretty stupid posting another but it's practically the summer now so I'm hoping that I will have time to do some more writing. But I will fit it in along with **_**Foundation of Memories, Victim of a Teenage Nobody**_** and **_**Playing the Part**_** and… well, we'll go from there. I might look into doing an updating schedule, but I'm really bad at sticking to schedules so that could go very badly lol**

**Ah, I'll see.**

**By the way, this title was the best I could come up with. I struggled for ages with a title and this is what happened so… yeah, it might change if I come up with anything better… :S**

**In the meantime, I would love some reviews? :L**

**Thank you so much!**

**-Steph**


	3. Chapter 2: Coffee Bean Pictures

**Previously…**

_I dabbed some glue on the back, and stuck it carefully into place, grabbing the gold gel pen out of my pencil case and writing a caption on the black card:_

"_I think of you as… extended family"-_ Mason Roberts

_I swallowed hard, trying to be rid of the lump in my throat as I read his words over and over again. Perhaps the constant reminder would stop me from pining after him for much longer…_

_Oh, who was I kidding? I was slowly but surely falling in love with my best friend; who saw me as a little sister. How stupid, and clichéd, and utterly heartbreaking._

**Extended Family**

**Chapter 2- Coffee Bean Pictures**

**Mason POV**

"I hear you're dating a junior?" Jessica Stanley asked, twisting in her seat as soon as I took my own seat behind her that afternoon in Spanish.

I lifted my eyes and met hers. They were hopeful; wanting a 'no' so that she could make her move. So I lied. "Uh… yeah. What's it to you?"

She shrugged. "It just seems… a little _below you_ to date a younger girl when you can have someone like… well, someone like me." Her attempts at subtlety sickened me.

"Why is dating a younger girl a bad thing?" I said through gritted teeth.

Jessica laughed. "You mean you haven't noticed? They haven't lived as long so, obviously, they don't know as much as us older girls do. They're naive and shallow and" – she lowered her voice to a whisper – "almost _always_ virgins."

I kept my cool by quirking one of my eyebrows rather than slowly and torturously plucking hers out. On second thought, Jessica Stanley's eyebrows were probably drawn on anyway. "Look, Jane is very mature for her age, and she's much less naive and shallow than you, Jessica. She's a very good friend of mine and she knows much more than you do about everything. Maybe if you stopped trying to find someone to replace your vulgar boyfriend, Newton, then you'd realise that I'm not interested and move on. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave me alone."

She glared at me, but reluctantly turned in her seat just as Mrs Goff came in.

I blew out a sigh of relief and turned to the seat next to me, surprised to find that it was still empty. As Mrs Goff started the lesson, I subtly opened a new text message under the table and wrote:

_Where are u man? Skiving isn't recommended ;)_

A moment later, I got a delivery report telling me that Edward's phone was off. Well what the fuck was with that?

I sighed and sat back in my chair, pretending to listen to Mrs Goff's explanation of describing things in Spanish. Really, my mind was occupied by the beautiful dark-haired girl who had saved me from Jessica's wrath. Why would she do that? Why did she care so much about saving me from being flirted with mercilessly? She didn't consider me unable to get rid of Jessica by myself, did she?

Perhaps she was just being protective of me, as I would be of her if a guy was going to make a move on her. I remembered wanting to hit that Seth kid in her class when I overheard him saying how pretty he thought she was in the corridor one day. But I had only wanted to hit him because… he might have been nasty to Jane; might have hurt her.

_Yeah, keep telling yourself that_, a voice in my head said sarcastically.

_Well, why else would I want to hit the shit out of a kid for commenting about my friend?_ I shot back at it.

_You like her, like her,_ it argued.

I had no response to that; I _knew_ that I 'liked her, liked her'. I just kept denying it. Why? There were numerous reasons, the first being that she was Edward's sister and almost like a sister to me. That would almost be incest. And incest was bad. Like, worse than bad. Other reasons included things like- she was too good for me, she would never feel that way in return, I would end up hurting her and our friendship would be ruined… the usual shit.

My phone vibrated in my hand then, and I looked down to see the delivery report telling me that my message had been delivered. I waited for his reply; it didn't take long.

_At hospital with Bella. Dude, she's threatening to rip my balls off and – I swear to God – she means it :S_

Holy shit…

_You mean she's freaking having the kid? Like now? Jeez. Good luck Daddy ;)_

_Yeah like now :S Thanks. I really need it right now. Bella's scaring the heck outta me :S I'll text u later…_

I slipped my phone back into my pocket with a smile, knowing that by 'later' he meant when his kid had been born. It was strange to think that the wriggly alien-like thing that had been occupying Bella's stomach for the past nine months was going to be a real person very soon. A real person we could actually meet, and talk to, and hold. A real person that would – one day – be able to talk and walk and… everything.

The rest of Spanish was slow and boring. Usually Spanish was a bit of a lark. I guessed that only went to prove what a difference Edward made to the class. At least, for me. Finally, the bell rang and I bolted for the car park, eager to get home and start the weekend.

**~EF~**

It was eight pm and I was sat on my bed trying to explain the concept of 'making babies' to Kenzie. She had refused to leave the room until I told her and, unfortunately, I was incapable of moving her without having her run shrieking to Mum. It was in times like these that Mum's preference for Mackenzie got really frustrating.

"Yes, I _know_ that they give each other a big hug but how does that make a baby?" she wailed, confused at my less-than-detailed explanation.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Look-" But, luckily, I was interrupted by my phone ringing obnoxiously with Edward's tone. "I have to get this, Kenz," I told her, grabbing my phone and answering it instantly. "Hey, man."

"Hey, Mason." He sounded exhausted.

Like the good friend I was, I laughed. "You sound full of energy."

"If I were in the same room as you, Roberts, I would hit you," he told me, but there was humour in his tone.

"So how'd it go, Daddy?" I asked, lying back on my bed. Mackenzie scowled at me and stormed out of the room. I thanked my lucky stars. "How are they?"

Edward blew out a long breath. "I don't even… I can't… there aren't really words. He's… amazing. So tiny, though. You should see his fingernails! He's got my stupid, messy hair, but I think he looks a lot like Bella. She thinks he's gonna have my eyes, but I'm not too sure. He weighs seven and a half pounds, which the midwife said was around about perfect."

I beamed at the description of my best friend's kid. "Congrats, man, I'm so pleased for you." Then, I grinned. "So are you doing the big reveal yet?"

Edward hesitated, and then said, "Not really. Not the full name without Bella. But, Bella agreed that I should ask you…" he trailed off.

I sat up, my brow furrowing. "Ask me what?"

He sighed, and I could almost see him running a hand through his messy bronze-coloured hair. Then he blurted, "Can we use your name?"

I was stunned into silence for a moment. "Let me get this straight," I said slowly, "you want to call your son _Mason_?"

Edward laughed. "No. A middle name. We agreed that… well, we owe a lot to you. Without you…" He didn't finish the thought, and neither did I. We both knew that Edward and Bella would have found their happily ever after whatever happened. But things could have been very different. Especially for Bella. "Besides, what's wrong with the name Mason?"

I shook the memories from my mind, not wanting to remember the lowest point in one of my best friends' life. "There's nothing _wrong_ with the name Mason as such," I answered Edward's question after a slight pause. "It just… seems kinda strange…"

"I know," he agreed. "His other middle…" he trailed off. "Oops. Forget I said that."

I chuckled.

There was a slight pause and then Edward sighed. "I guess I should go; I have to call my Mum."

"You called me before her?" My surprise was transparent in my voice.

"Yeah… I… I just know that Mum will cry and I have a feeling that it's going to be hard to escape Alice without giving a name…"

I laughed. "Knowing Alice, I'd bet that you're right."

Edward said his goodbyes, and I said congratulations again before I arranged to drop in and see the baby at Edward's house on Sunday.

After I had hung up, I looked around my tiny little box room and noticed the photo on the floor. I crossed the room and bent down to pick it up; my wall was so full of photos now that they were overlapping- I would have to start on the ceiling soon. I turned the photo over in my hand and smiled when I realised that it was the most recent photo I had stuck up. Esme had taken it a few weeks back and it was of Edward, Bella, Alice, Jane and I all sat on Edward and Bella's bed, laughing like lunatics. My eyes passed over my best friend and his girlfriend and sister, and settled on the newest addition to the Cullen family. Her mousy brown wavy hair curled round her face in the most perfect of ways and her startling green eyes shone as she giggled. She was so pretty. Beautiful, in fact. My feelings were starting to confuse me. Whenever I looked at Jane, I got the same feelings in my chest that I used to get when I looked at Bella… just a lot… stronger.

I sighed and stuck it back on the wall, in its space next to the photo of Jane and I sat on the stairs. Then I stepped back and looked at the wall as a whole. It was a little embarrassing to see that there were a lot of photos of _her_ on my wall now; it showed just how obsessed I was.

But an obsession wasn't _always_ a bad thing… was it?

**~EF~**

Mum cornered me the next morning as I was pulling my shoes on. "Mason?"

I knew why she had gotten up so early before she said another word; I could tell from the tone of her voice that she wanted a favour. I sighed and straightened up to look at her. "Yes?"

She smiled at me, running her skinny fingers through her short black hair and rubbing her blue eyes – my blue eyes. "Well, you see, the other day when I went… um… grocery shopping, I accidentally knocked over a stack of baked bean cans and…"

I rolled my eyes at my mother's tendency to make a story longer than it needed to be. "Just spit it out Mum."

"Well, I met a guy and I agreed to go out with him tonight and I…"

"Let me guess," I interrupted again, but I was grinning at her this time, "you want me to babysit Kenz?"

She smiled sheepishly. "Please?"

I laughed at her expression; it was almost as though she were the child and I the parent. "Sure, Mum. I'll do it."

"Thank you, Mason." She sounded relieved. But then she glanced at the clock. "You should get going…"

I nodded. "I'll see you later. Don't spend all day in the bathroom!" I teased as I pulled open the door.

She poked her tongue out at me and then waved before turning and heading back upstairs to bed, instantly putting out my fresh good mood as though she had poured water over a fire. Thanks to my lousy Saturday job as a barista in a coffee shop, I had to be out of bed at an ungodly hour on a weekend. But it paid well and it was a pretty good job all in all so I couldn't really complain.

I tucked my hands in my jacket pocket as I walked down the road and thought about the last time Mum had been on a date. She had been really excited, as she always was before meeting these men she had deemed 'perfect' after a few conversations online, and spent all day pampering and beautifying herself for the one date. She had come home in tears because the bastard hadn't even bothered to turn up. That had happened more than once, and on the other occasions, when the guys _had_ managed to get the guts up to meet her, she had also been disappointed. There had only been one guy that had gotten a second date and it turned out that he was stealing money out of her purse so he was ditched straight away, thank God.

I frowned, not looking forward to another night of comforting Mum again; I had done enough of that to last a lifetime; Mum and I got on really well. We were more like good friends than mother and son, though that was probably something to do with the sixteen-year age gap.

Mum had grown up in Portland in Oregon, and everything had been great for her, until she had just turned sixteen. Just a week after her sixteenth birthday, she had been assaulted and raped, and then left for dead. Her best friend, and next-door neighbour at the time, Ryan, had found her taken her home. She recovered, slowly, but her assaulters weren't caught. A few months later, she found out that she was pregnant. Her whole family persuaded her to have an abortion, to get rid of the kid because of the memories that would be associated with it. But she couldn't do it. When her parents found out that she was keeping the baby, they were livid – they believed in old-fashioned morals and were afraid of what people would say when they found out that their teenage daughter had thrown away her education for a rape baby. They kicked her out and she ran to Ryan and he took her in. As soon as he graduated that year, they ran away together, to Forks.

In November, she had the baby – me – and everything was fine. Mum re-took her last two years of school and Ryan acted as a father-figure for me. Mum had always called him her hero. A few years later, when they both had steady jobs and a good income, Mum married Ryan and then they had Mackenzie. We were a perfect little family.

But then, when Mackenzie was two and I was twelve, Ryan was killed in a car accident; the other driver was drunk. Mum didn't take it well. She didn't move on for almost four years, and then she only dated people that websites claimed would be a 'perfect' match for her family, because she didn't want to put Mackenzie and I through any more hurt.

Of course, none of the matches had been perfect. All of them had been as imperfect as they could possibly get, which left me with little hope for any man my mother dated; she didn't seem to be attracted to the best types. Although I supposed that I should hold more hope for this guy, since she had met him while she was shopping, and not online. At least, that way, he couldn't pretend to be someone he wasn't when he was hidden behind a shield of a computer.

I pushed the thoughts about Mum from my mind as I came into work then, plastering a smile on my face instead for the early Saturday rush that was due to start in about ten minutes. I shot a grin at Tash, who scowled back at me as I ducked under the counter to grab my apron and name tag. No sooner had I put both of those on, the first of the steady stream of customers came in.

The morning was steady, but not busy. People popped in and out but there were never too many waiting at once. Eventually, at about lunchtime when people went to places that sold food as well as coffee, the Flying Bean was empty. I was kind of disappointed when it got empty on these Saturdays. The girls I worked with alternated days so when Lucy was working, it was great. We put bets on what coffees people were going to order and how long they'd stay and loads of other stuff and generally had a laugh. Tash, though, was a moody cow. She had short black hair and thickly-black-rimmed eyes and spent most of her time moaning about her shitty life to her equally-emo boyfriend on the iPhone that her rich Daddy had bought her. You know the type.

So I reached under the desk for a sheet of paper and my pot of coffee beans. Whenever a coffee bean was dropped on the floor, or whatever, Lucy or I saved it and put it in our little pot. Then, when we were particularly bored, we used them to make pictures.

I blocked out Tash's monotone whining as I spread out my beans and got to work. I was concentrating so hard on my picture that I didn't hear the bell ring when the door opened and a customer came in.

"What's that?" a too-familiar voice asked.

I jumped and scattered the beans everywhere before looking up to meet _that pair_ of gorgeous green eyes. I was rendered speechless until the dark but dainty brows above the eyes raised slightly, questioning me. "Um…" I stuttered, "it was… just a picture."

Jane rolled her eyes. "I could see _that_, Mason."

I shrugged. "It was a tree, I guess. I dunno. I get bored."

Jane looked around, twirling a strand of wavy brown hair around her first finger. "I don't blame you." She smiled at me then. "I didn't know that you worked here."

I shrugged again. "Yeah. I've been working here for about six months now." I leant against the counter, pretending to be cool or something stupid like that, but I hadn't factored in the sheet of paper and it slid along the desk, making me slip slightly. I steadied myself and tried to look like I had meant to do that.

It didn't wash; Jane giggled.

I cleared my throat. "So… what can I get for you, little lady?"

"This is a coffee shop, right?" She looked down the list of confusingly-named coffees.

"Yep."

Her eyes returned to me. "So why don't you just sell coffee?"

I laughed. "Okay. See this? The 'Simply Smooth'?"

"Mmm hmm."

"That's a white coffee," I told her.

Jane's brow furrowed slightly before she said, "Well, why don't you just call it a white coffee then?"

"That's something you'll have to ask the manager, Jane." I tried to keep the smile from my face so that it wouldn't look like I was mocking her but, of course, that failed. Just like everything else I was doing today.

"I'll have one of those, please." She bit her lip, suddenly nervous, and then said, so quietly that I almost didn't hear her, "Will you sit with me?"

I blinked. "What?"

"I'll buy you a coffee? Just… take a break. I'm alone and you're bored…" She trailed off.

I grinned. "Sure, of course I'll sit with you. But you don't have to buy it; I get it free." I winked at her.

Jane watched silently as I made her white coffee (or 'Simply Smooth') and my hot chocolate (or 'Chocolate Heaven') and then followed me to the table in the back corner.

"Why here?" she asked as I sat down.

I pointed to the gap between the sit-in tables and the serving desk as I replied, "Because I can see when customers come in. Plus, this is my favourite table."

She sat gingerly opposite me, still very nervous though I couldn't work out why. Jane was funny like that. She could be laughing and joking with me one minute, like the day before as I had stolen her chips, and then the next… getting a word out of her was harder than persuading Mackenzie to eat _anything_ green. And that was pretty damn hard. "Why?" she wondered as she took the mug off of me, curling her slim fingers around the mug and tapping her long nails against the china.

I thought about my answer for a second. "Because it's out of the way while still being in sight. It's kind of on the periphery of everything but it's also _right there_, you know?"

She nodded thoughtfully and then took a sip of her coffee. She smiled at me when she saw me staring and said, "Nice coffee."

"It all depends on the beans."

"Well then… these are some damn good beans."

"You bet your bottom dollar they are." I couldn't help the huge grin that lit up my face whenever Jane was around. It was almost… almost natural in a way. I changed the subject. "So, I guess you heard from Edward, huh?"

She sighed. "Yes."

I raised my eyebrows, asking her what was with her irritated tone without actually _asking_ her.

She sighed again; more exasperated this time. "It's just… that's all anyone's talking about. We're going to visit them this afternoon and I thought I'd come here for a quick break from it all and it's practically the first thing out of your mouth too…"

"Actually, the first thing out of my mouth was…"

"Alright smart arse," she cut me off with a – pretty good – faux British accent, before continuing with her rant. "I'm just a little fed up with hearing 'oh, I wonder what the baby's name will be' and 'oh, I wonder how Edward, Bella and the baby are now' and 'I bet it's the cutest kid in the world'… blah, blah, blah." She waved a hand in the air to emphasise her point.

"Not into babies, huh Jane?" I teased.

"Not into Bella," she muttered before taking another sip of her coffee.

I sighed, but didn't otherwise respond for a few moments before saying, "So Alice didn't manage to get the name off of Edward then?"

"Nope. Bella's probably picked out an awful name anyway to be honest. She told Alice that she liked the name _Renesmee_ once." She made a face. "It's a good thing that the kid's a boy because, really what is _that_ all about?"

"Er… well, call me stupid, but it sounds like both of their Mums' names combined to make…"

Jane glared at me. "Do you make a joke out of everything?"

"Most things," I admitted. "Edward said that they were hoping to be back today?"

Jane nodded and drew circles on the tabletop with her finger. "Yeah. I think they got the all-clear this morning, as long as Bella stays in bed for, like, ages." She pulled another face; Jane had an extraordinary variety of irritated expressions. "So I'm gonna be up all night, and everyone will be making a fuss over the kid and stuff."

I hesitated and then said slowly, "Do you have an aversion to kids in general? Or just… Bella?"

Jane shrugged. "Mostly Bella. I mean, I don't _hate_ her. She just irritates me some and…"

I held up a hand to stop her excuses. "Don't."

Jane had the decency to look a little sheepish, even though I wasn't having a go at her. I understood why she didn't like Bella… sort of. Okay, that was a lie. I had no idea why Jane disliked Bella so much.

I took a deep breath before continuing. "I have to babysit Kenzie tonight and, if you want to get out of the house, you can come and stay with me."

Jane's whole face lit up and she nearly dropped her coffee in excitement. "Really?" she exclaimed after setting her coffee down.

I laughed. "Sure."

"Awesome!" She opened her mouth to say something else, but then the bell rang and a customer came in.

"Mason!" Tash called in her annoying nasal voice.

"Bitch," I muttered to Jane. Then I grinned and winked at her. "Come round at seven thirty. I'll see you then."

Her eyes shone as she nodded and waved me off.

I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face as I headed over to the counter to take the customer's coffee order. Suddenly, the whole babysitting gig wasn't looking too bad after all.

**~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~**

**Hey guys! How much did we miss Mason, really? :D Well there's a little bit of what's going on in his head ;) And if you're not liking Jane too much right now (what with her not liking Bella) then don't worry 'cos we're heading back into her POV next chapter (I think) and so it'll be explained then ;)**

**BTW- I'm gonna be sticking with the title I think but thanks so much for the suggestions! :)**

**Okay, I have a few things to say this time.**

**Firstly, if you read any of my other fics or those pesky A/Ns, then you'll know that I'm taking part in the 'Fandom Gives Back' auction as are many BRILLIANT fanfic authors. I'm not going to post the same message because I don't want to get on your nerves but if you want to know more, see chapter 2 of the outtake story. Basically, I'm selling you guys any outtake you want from any story- and all of the money goes to a charity for children with cancer. There's one up for bid, or you can now BUY them for $5. That way you'll definitely get the one that you want without having to wait. BUT there is only one day left that they're available and, after that, these outtakes won't necessarily be written. So I'll shut up about this now but there's links and more information on my profile as well as examples as to what you might want to read about :)**

**Secondly, three friends and I are starting up a brand new rec site! We decided that not enough is being done for those amazing fics out there that have like no reviews. The link to the site is on my profile and you can find out more there but the first recs will be posted on Wednesday. So if you're looking for a new read and are up for supporting the underdogs of fanfiction then check it out :D**

**Thirdly, moonlight studio is holding a one-shot contest based on lyrics and she needs more entries. I know that lots of people like entering and don't always know about these things so if you're wanting a contest to try your hand at then check out the link on my profile :)**

**And I do believe that's it :)**

**OH! I am seeing Eclipse TOMORROW EVENING (Saturday 3****rd**** July) so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE no spoilers or ANYTHING until after that- if it's awesome, GREAT, but I want to work that out for myself ;) But, just for the record, I'm beyond stupidly excited ;) I'm just gutted that after Eclipse there is nothing until November 2011! How will I live?**

**Now, I'm starting up a new thing. I tried it with 'Victim of a Teenage Nobody' and I think it was fairly successful. I'm gonna offer PREVIEWS for REVIEWS :) So if you review, I'll reply with a sneak peek of the next chapter… unless you tell me you don't want one :L They might be a little delayed what with me going to see Britain's Got Talent live tomorrow afternoon and then Eclipse in the evening (!) but they will come :)**

**And now that really is it :L Sorry about the long A/N :S**

**Please review! :D**

**-Steph**


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